TSX 60 Ex-Dividend Date + How I Beat The Market With My Stock Picks

Sorry for the delay people, I’ve been crumbling under a pile of work this week and couldn’t come up with this post before now. If you are curious about what I’m working on, check this out 😉

TSX 60 Ex-Dividend Date – Some Stocks Don’t Pay Their Dues!

Before I go ahead and publish the TSX 60 Ex-Dividend date monthly chart, I must admit that I was quite surprised to see that 5 stocks out of 60 aren’t paying dividends. There were only 3        (Valeant – VRX , Catamaran – CCT and BlackBerry – RIP… I mean BB) last month. I Am Gold (IMG) has been kicked-out of the index and replaced by CGI Group (CGI) which doesn’t pay a dividend.  Another gold digger (Kinross Gold Corp – K) has suspended its dividend as well. In fact, most gold stocks dropped or annihilated their dividend over summer. This leaves 29 stocks out of 60 paying a dividend over 3%:

Best 2013 Dividend Stocks Results

At the beginning of the year, I created a list of Best dividend stocks for 2013 (click on the link to get my metrics and see the list). Out of this exhaustive list, I pulled out 30 stocks to be my “favorite” picks from the list. These are not stock recommendations and I strongly suggest you do your own analysis and read the financial statements. This book is simply a compilation of my own stock analyses for 30 stocks either held in my portfolio or on my watch list.

I’ve broken down the results per market:

Best 2013 US Dividend Stock Results +22.11% and 3.11% Dividend Yield

I’m proud to write that none of my 20 US dividend stock picks for 2013 shows a negative return… and that I’m beating my benchmark by 5.26% (VIG with 16.85%). On top of this, my portfolio is paying 0.97% more in dividend yield.  My three best picks are Seagate Technology (STX), Walgreen (WAG) and Safeway (SWY).

Darden Restaurants (DRI) wasn’t able to deliver better results after revamping its menu. Since sales were disappointing, the stock dropped and is now almost flat (+2.71%) for the year. Once again, this shows how quickly a stock value can turn around upon the release of financial results.

**Please note that Heinz (HZN) stock is now in my portfolio as a reference only since it was bought earlier this year. Therefore the stock won’t pay dividends any longer.

Best 2013 Canadian Dividend Stock Results

The best news of the past month was the fact that Verizon (VZ) put its project to enter the Canadian market on ice for good with its recent purchase of its shares owned by Vodafone. No other foreign telecom behemoth bid on the spectrum leaving the mobile market to Rogers (RCI.B), Telus (T) and Bell (BCE). Since I have chosen 2 out of three in this sector, it has helped me beat my benchmark by 1.01% so far this year (XDV).

After a slow starts, Canadian Banks (RY and NA) have picked-up their pace and both show +10% ytd. I’m fairly confident for the next quarter of the year!

You want to know how I chose these picks? Check the answer right here.

Disclaimer: I’m long NA, T, CVX, JNJ, MCD